The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-07-11
A REAL ESTATE NOVELTY.
An Easy and Speedy Method for Look
ing up Titles.

An Easy and Speedy Method for Look
ing up Titles.
New YORK, July 9.-One of the sig
nificant signs of the times in the business
world is the bill just signed by the Governor
of this State providing for a more scientific
method for the registration and indexing of
land in this city. One of the great difficult
ties in real estate transactions is the time
and expense involved in the transfer of
property, and at this time, when the market
for real estate is so active, not merely here
but i'll many other parts of the country, any
desirable innovation on antique and cum
berSOme methods of transfer is worthy of
notice. Usually the searching of a title is
made for fifty years back to see if the trans
fers have been properly made, but when a
large amount of property is involved, this
takes considerable time and often entails
large expense with great risk of error. AT
present the transfers are indexed with the
names of parties to the transaction. 1t is
notorious that the most experienced law
yers often make grave mistakes in the
searching of titles. None know this better
than the real estate brokers, and it is sin
glllar that the errors are not more frequent
In old communities, where the registration
is about as cumbersome as the Chinese Ian
guage Blunders are often made, more
over, by clerks in transcl1bing names and
in designating localities. The name Mears
for example may be copied as Man, not to
mention other names which in obscure Chi
Biography may seem to be entirely
different from the fact, and which care
less clerks may set down according to the
impression derived from a hasty glance.
Or the location may be described as $50
feet east instead of west Of certain street
or north or south, as the case may be. These
mistakes may not he discovered for years,
and then the correction of them often in
wolves considerable trouble and expense.
Very heavy fees are demanded by the best
LAWYERS for searching titles. One firm has
an income of 100000 a year from this
work alone, and yet, as already stated, some
of the best lawyers make blunders. They
NAV turn over two pages at once, or fail to
discoyer clerical errors The search always
takes considerable time The new law in
PRODUCES the block system, by which the
property on each city block is indexed i'll
volume by itself, and all the transfers have
especial relation to location rather than to
names, a fact which will greatly facilitate
the searching of titles. Thus on block
No. 50, for examples transfer is made by
John Thompson. BY the old method all the
Thomson entries would have to be examined
which considering how many persons bear
that name would be long and tedious task
and the same would be true of such names
ms Smith. Jones. Brown and others of differ
ent nationalities. A thorough lawyer, more
over, would not content himself with the
index, but would go through the entire vol
ume In an old city like New York the
labor involved in such search is laborious
and tedious in the extreme. BY the old sys-
tom n search would take at least two weeks
and sometimes much longer. By the
new block system it can be done in half an
hour.
There is a change in the conduct Of real
estate transactions, which has come UNI
heralded but which means practical revo-
luton in this department OF business IN
great cities. In small towns and thinly
Settled sections a search is usually compare
lively easy. but to an old community like
Nav York il is like pulling the Old Man OF
the Sea from the back of Sinbad. Our old
laws with reference to the transfer OF real
estate are founded for the most part on those
of England where possession was generally
slpposed to be perpetual but even IN Eng
land in recent years attempts nave oeeh
made to devise some system OF transfer
uherehv real estate might be made easily
na,otiahle In reference to the compli-
Gated methods of English conveyencing
tbe Duke of Marlborough said: In every
country the theory of the land laws has de-
,,o,,dcd ON the fact that land was never IN
tondad 70 be dealt with by free commerce
and barter. and its sale and exchange have
at MI times been surrounded by legal diff
entities cS of every description Twill ask any
,,oa,, ~ business where his trade would go
go if HE business was hampered and him
dered by this mode of treatment. The, Ihe sim i'm
,,le cure Is TO sweep away at one blow the
entire machinery Of deeds, and substitute IN
matters of sale simple mode OF registra-
ton of parcels bought and sold D et;n We +